Hi All,
I'm in week 6 and pretty confident now that I'll graduate by Christmas. When I started I thought I might set myself the goal of running our local 5k next June, but today when I was out and about I saw a poster and in fact there are 2 variants (basically once round the route or twice.) So I'm wondering about the 10k as a goal...
How long have other folk taken to get from 5k to 10k ?
Alison
Haven't got to 10k yet, but I'm doing a six week bridge to 10k programme, having spent at least a couple of months after graduating just enjoying being able to run. So from the point of view of "how many weeks would it take?" I think it's perfectly achievable to have 10k as a goal for June.
However, the 3 runs a week that I do obviously take significantly longer than the c25k runs did - it will be up to an hour and 10 minutes including warm up and cool down walks, so the amount of time you can spend doing each run may be a factor.
There are other ways of doing it. Some do a 5km run, a speed interval run and a "long" run each week, extending the long run by about 10% each week. That would be less of a time commitment for 2 of the runs in the week, but may take more weeks to achieve the 10k goal.
Have you got a park run near you? If so, then you have a 5k race you can do for free every week, and aiming for 10k in June might be a better incentive than "just" (ha ha, am I saying that??) running 5k which hopefully by then you'll be able to achieve on a regular basis.
It's really up to you and what you want to get out of running... and the race.
Oh yes, go for it. I graduated this time last year, having never run before (and age 50) and completed a 10k "race" in April.(there was no racing as far as I was concerned, just running at my own pace), and in September I did a half marathon.
To get from 5k to 10k I did 2 x 5k runs a week and on a weekend I gradually upped the distance each week, but others will have different advice, including speed intervals, which I didn't do because I wasn't worried about how fast I did it.
Good luck
You've got plenty of time to build up to a 10k. Don't be impatient and be tempted to increase by more than 10% a week as that makes you more prone to injury. Three times a week is plenty, gradually increasing the length of your "long" run. It's good to include a speed or hill session once a week but, if you do that, build up the intensity gradually so your body gets used to it. Good luck & enjoy it 
Plenty of time to get to 10K. You'll have no trouble with it. Generally I'd agree with the build-it-up-slowly advice but my own experience was slightly different. I'd been running a 5k loop regularly and one day it just felt right to do it twice, so I did. So that was 10K straight off without building up to it. Moral is, do what feels right for you and prepare to be surprised at how well you do and how quickly you get to it.
Thanks everyone. I guess I don't need to decide anything until signup time (May) but I think I'll keep this as a "background goal". Of course, first I have to get to 5k. (week 6, did 4k yesterday including the warmup and cooldown walks).
I blogged about this very subject a while back. With mixed reaction to be fair. But I am a firm believer in this: If you're running 5km three or four times a week - you can already run 10k.
To give you a quick example, a friend of mine ran a half marathon earlier this year. During his training he never ran more than 5 miles, indeed had NEVER ran more than 5 miles in one go before running a half marathon. He was the one who suggested to me that if I could run 5k and was doing that regularly, the stamina and strength was already there for the step up to 10k.
This turned out to be true for me. I was running 5k every other day and decided to test the theory and ran for 10k.
But it's very much a personal thing.
I agree with the replies on here. Go for it, you have plenty of time. And good luck!
You'll be fine, I graduated and then went out with a running group a few times afterwards, the first run was 4.65 miles when 5k had been my max before. Did a few more similar runs, but then I sort of fell of the wagon and didn't run at all for 3 months, then ran three 5ks and followed that straight away with the Manchester 10 K. It was fine and I'm certainly not superfit or anything. (I'm not recommending doing it that way either, but you definitely have plenty of time)
Wise words from OldNed - do what feels right for you.
My experience was that I was running further than 5k before graduating and completed the 10k about a month after graduating then not long after that hit the 10 mile mark.
Everyone is different though but if you are in the zone and feeling confident that's a great sign.
Good luck.
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